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Thursday, December 10, 2015

Raub - a town gold made famous

This rest house lies on the hillock overlooking the padang.

ACCORDING
to a local who saw me painting the Raub Rest House at Jalan Dato Abdullah
recently, the name of the township came from the Malay term “raup”, which means
a scoop. The 70-something pakcik told me that his grandfather had related to
him a story about a farmer and his two sons who had ventured to set up farm in
the wilderness.

After
having cleared and ploughed the land, the farmer and his son went to the river
to get water to irrigate the plots. Upon reaching the river, they were not only
attracted by the crystal-clear waters but also the glitter on the riverbed.
Curious, they took a scoop of sand from the bottom of riverbed to see what the
glitter was and were surprised to find gold nuggets among the grains of sand.

The news
of their finding spread quickly and prospectors came from near and far to look
for gold. There was so much gold in the river that every dulang of sand washed
would yield a “raup” or a scoop of gold. Hence, the township became known as
“Raup” or Raub today. It is said that the area where the padang is now located
used to be a waterlogged piece of land that yielded the highest amount of gold
deposits.

Another
story told was that Raub received its name from the Rao (or Rawo) immigrant
community who lived in the area who were mostly farmers and miners. The area, then
known as the Rao Valley, became Raub in later years.

I painted
his colonial-style rest house seated beneath an old raintree on the
south-eastern end. This old rest house is located on top of a hillock which
offers it a commanding view of Raub town. The rest house was built in 1908 and
had been described as one of the finest in Pahang and Selangor in an old
newspaper cutting of the 1930s. Back those days, whenever there was a major
event in town, its premises were reserved for the accommodation of VIPs and top
government officials.

Today, the
rest house is still popular with tourists, especially those who want to
experience a little bit of nostalgia in the bustling town centre. On the
walls of the rest house’s high ceiling lobby are old photographs and newspaper
cuttings that mark the various milestone events in the town that gold made
famous.

ABOUT ME

I am a journalist, having worked with the New Straits Times for over 22 years in various capacities on the editorial team. I took early retirement from regular work to pursue my passion in art at the end of 2014. I founded the KL Sketchers group, the first Urban Sketching group to hold a public exhibition in University Malaya in 2013. I am also founder of several other art groups, including Malaysian Watercolours,Malaysian Plein Aire Artists, and the Asian Watercolours on Facebook. These days I still write but sketch and paint outdoors mostly, looking at life from an artist's point of view.

WATERCOLOUR CLASS

I have been asked by some readers who want to take up watercolour if I conduct classes. I do, occasionally, but not often. If you want to learn watercolour from the basics, write to me.